


Preference

by canadino



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, there's also tsukihina but i didn't want to put this in the tag since it's not a main ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 10:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6048556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadino/pseuds/canadino
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A proclivity for one thing over another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preference

“Kiyoko-san!” Nishinoya announced boldly. It was a water break, but he clearly had caught his second wind early. “What guys are you into?” He stood with his feet firmly planted shoulder length apart, his center of gravity lowered to further balance himself out. Tanaka nudged him within an inch of his life over his sheer cheek and admiration for his daring and Nishinoya did not so much as sway. Kiyoko looked at him, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.  


“You think you deserve to know something like that?” she asked softly. Nishinoya fell to his knees at this admonishment - he had knee guards, so he could drop with abandon. Tanaka collapsed next to him in solidarity, wailing as he did so. Their dramatics cracked a tiny smile on her face. “I like guys who don’t bow their head when I say things like that.”  


Nishinoya joined Tanaka in screaming and shouting, filling the gym with noise. Yachi gazed over in equal admiration between the racket that the two were making and Kiyoko’s poise; if anyone asked her something like that, she doubted she would be able to give a cool answer like that. “Eh, what about you, Yachi?” Yamaguchi asked, unable to read the atmosphere. “What kind of guys do you like?”

She squawked. Nishinoya and Tanaka were just about finished with their duet so she was a mere peep in the ruckus. “Me?” she said. “Why would you want to know about me! I’m just a first year, I’m a nobody.”

“I’m a first year too,” Yamaguchi said.   


“Well...” She kneaded the towel in her hands she was meant to hand out. Yamaguchi was staring at her expectantly. “Well,” she said again, to draw it out, hoping against all hope that anyone, even Kageyama, would come to her rescue or that Sawamura would call for practice to begin again. In fact, Tsukishima was even standing nearby with Hinata chewing his ear off but they did not even turn to look at her. “I suppose...I like tall guys.” She gazed up at him meaningfully, channelling her best Kiyoko courage.  


“Huh?” Her look seemed to go right over his head and he looked over at Tsukishima. She though she had been very direct and obvious. “Tall guys, you say? I guess there is some kind of charm there.”  


“It’s not so much charm,” Hinata said. Yachi thought she would beat him up later for having overheard and not come to her aid. “I seriously believe that if you’re sh...er, not very vertically gifted, you can make up for it by spending more time with tall people and sucking their growing energy.”   


“Is that why you hang off me all the time?” Tsukishima was frowning as usual behind his glasses. “Sorry to break it to you, but making me slouch all the time isn’t going to shrink my spine. It’s going to be the same length no matter how hunched you try to drag me down to.”  


“No,” Yachi said, now that all the attention had gone to Tsukishima and she sensed a misunderstanding had just happened. “I said, I mean, I like tall guys, I mean taller than me...”  


Daichi’s voice boomed over from where he was standing and at once, all the boys on the volleyball team put down their water bottles and walked over obediently. Yamaguchi looked over at Tsukishima, up and down. Tsukishima was still only a few inches taller than him but he did tower over most of the team and he sometimes had to lower his head to get through some of the smaller doors in the school. Wasn’t that big of a height gap just unappealing? Certainly the difference would make Tsukishima have to literally bend over to kiss Yachi or speak into her ear. The thought made him feel down, even when Tsukishima delivered a particularly scathing zinger toward Kageyama. 

“Hey, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said, gathering up his mettle to voice his discomfort as he, Tsukishima, and Hinata walked home. “What kind of girls do you like?”  


Tsukishima made a face. “Are you trying to make fun of me right now?”

“No! No, never. I just...I’m curious. I really want to know.”  


Tsukishima clicked his tongue. “I like people who are shorter than me.” 

That could literally be anyone, Yamaguchi wanted to wail. He quickly gathering himself up again to return the volley. “Well...is there anything else? I mean, if you were going to date someone, there probably has to be something else...”

“You really are making fun of me,” Tsukishima said, his voice indicating he was dangerously close to reaching the point where he would not respond to any stimulus no matter how persistent anyone was. Yamaguchi knew this because he was already starting to scroll through his plethora of playlists on his phone, which he only did when he was steeling himself for a long period of silence and ignoring. “I’m already dating someone so that hypothetical is moot.”  


“Who?” Yamaguchi really did wail here. He’d been with Tsukishima for most of their mutual classes together and they always had volleyball practice after the last bell. True, Tsukishima had been called out a few times by blushing girls but this hadn’t happened lately, so it really was a mystery.  


“Um,” Hinata said. “Me, duh.” He wiggled his fingers at Yamaguchi from the other side of Tsukishima. Yamaguchi’s mouth fell open but no scream came out.   


“Why do you think the child is coming along with us?” Tsukishima grumbled. “His house is in the other direction.”  


“For a Tsukishima fanboy, you’re really unobservant,” Hinata added.   


“Since when?” Yamaguchi yelled when he’d finally gotten home. His mother gave him a look and told him to keep his voice down indoors. He called Tsukishima afterwards and only got five minutes of questions in before he was hung up on. He remembered Hinata was over at Tsukishima’s house, so Tsukishima probably did not want to talk anyway.   


Because it was his duty as a good friend and a good man, Yamaguchi pulled Yachi aside between classes, because science started late usually and she was about to go to lunch. She had her head down so he couldn’t see her face, although her ears that were peeking out from underneath her hair were bright red. Kiyoko had amazing feminine instincts; for a moment, Yamaguchi wondered if Yachi knew what he was about to warn her about and whether he ought to bother. Still, he would feel bad if he didn’t say anything. “Listen, Yachi,” he said very seriously. “You should give up on Tsukishima.”

“What?” Her head shot up. Her face was red, but her expression was wild.   


“The thing is...ah, I probably shouldn’t even say, he’d kill me...but...hypothetically...he is...seeing someone, so even if you told him how you felt, he would probably...is this even my place to tell you? But I should, shouldn’t I, so you don’t go into that kind of thing blind. If you stopped being our manager because of it, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself knowing I could have stopped it...”  


“What are you talking about?” she asked.  


“You like Tsukishima, don’t you?” He was aware he was still holding her wrist but letting go now felt like he would be letting her down in some way. He wasn’t even breaking the news to her that gently.   


For a moment, Yachi made incredulous sounds that were incomprehensible. Then - “I said I liked tall boys, didn’t I? You’re tall too, aren’t you?”

“Me?” Yamaguchi looked down at himself. He had to lower his head slightly to talk to Yachi if he wanted to meet her eyes. She wouldn’t have to lean her head back too much to look directly at him. “Yeah...I guess I am.”  


“So,” Yachi said, “I have my free study period when you have lunch. I can say I need to go to the library and see you if you’d like.”  


“Um,” Yamaguchi said. “Yeah, I’d like that.” He was very glad Tsukishima was not his lab partner, because he was going to be watching the clock all the way until the period was over.   


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I wanted to write something cute.


End file.
